


default setting

by written_you_down



Series: nostalgic. [5]
Category: Bastille (Band)
Genre: Broken Bones, Fluff and Angst, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-06-18
Updated: 2020-06-18
Packaged: 2021-03-03 18:40:59
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,561
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24780223
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/written_you_down/pseuds/written_you_down
Summary: Kyle is high on pain killers and Dan is his favorite person.
Relationships: Kyle Simmons/Dan Smith
Series: nostalgic. [5]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1754833
Comments: 17
Kudos: 31





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Kyle is gloriously high. 

The pain killers are working in full force and he feels as if his entire body is smiling, like he’s vibrating, he feels everything and nothing all at once. It’s tremendous. Dan’s arm has been wrapped around him since they left the hospital and headed back to the hotel. Kyle knows it’s only there to keep him upright because his legs — they’re not at their most coordinated, but who cares? He doesn’t need legs, he has _Dan_ to help him walk. Fuck his legs. Dan is infinitely better than those guys. 

“Hey, Dan.” Kyle grins. “I like you much more than legs.”

Dan looks up in amusement from the hotel lift button he’s just pushed. “Thanks?”

“Welcome,” Kyle nods solemnly as the door opened. He does his best to get inside the lift without tripping. His worthless foot catches a bit, but Dan because he’s the fucking best…the very best, doesn’t let him fall. Which is fantastic, Kyle figures, because he doesn’t need two broken elbows. Not at the same time. How ridiculous. 

Kyle leans back against the wall of the lift as it shuttles them to their floor. All of the walls and the ceiling are mirrored and reflect dozens of Dans and Kyles over and over again. It’s the most brilliant thing Kyle has ever seen. “Hey, Dan. Take a picture, will you? I can’t.”

“A picture of what?” Dan wonders, but because he’s the greatest, is already taking his phone out of his pocket. 

“Of all the us-s. Look. We’re everywhere.” 

Dan snorts lightly as he glances around the lift and sees all the Kyle’s with grins plastered across all of their faces. “That medicine has you feeling good, I see.”

“So good, I could crawl up these walls like Spider-man.” Kyle leans his face against the side of Dan’s head as Dan holds his phone up to capture the moment. “Take loads, please. I like options.”

“I don’t see why,” Dan replies. “You’re doing the same thing in each of them.” 

In response, Kyle lowers his face and kisses the top of Dan’s ear. “There,” Kyle murmurs. “That’s new.” Kyle shifts his sight back to the mirrors and catches the expression on Dan’s face. Kyle recognizes the look even though it’s the first time he’s ever seen it on Dan. Kyle likes it. He likes it so much, he decides that there’s no way he can let it pass without telling Dan as much. Dan’s ear is still between Kyle’s lips when he says, “Your face is my favorite.”

Kyle swears that he can feel Dan’s grip around him tighten, that Dan’s fingers are pressed firmly into his hip. Before he can consider anything else, his thoughts are interrupted by the lift. It dings loudly, indicating they were on their floor. Kyle moved his face away from Dan’s as the door slid open. 

The hallways were empty. Kyle did his best to act normal, to keep his voice down, to move one foot in front of the other. He didn’t want to wake anyone, surely people were sleeping (or, Kyle smirked, actively not sleeping, lucky bastards) behind the closed doors they shuffled past. 

It seemed like Kyle and Dan had been in the hospital that night for years. It became apparent fairly quickly that arm wrestling injuries were not at the top of the hospital’s trauma list. Because his broken elbow wasn’t considered catastrophic to anyone other than Kyle, the two had spent hours waiting to be seen. Hours seated next to the ambulance bay, listening to the sirens wail as people were brought in with broken bones, wounds and heart attacks, all in need of repair. It was endless, the amount of people who needed mending. It made Kyle lose all sense of time. 

“Hey, Dan,” he whispered loudly. “Can you believe we’re out this late? It must be four, five o’clock.”

Dan laughed softly. “It’s not that late, Kyle.” Dan glanced down at his phone which was still in his hand. “It’s just after midnight.”

Kyle raised his eyebrows and his voice at the same time. “Really?” He peered over Dan’s shoulder to see the screen of his phone. Once he confirmed Dan was telling the truth (which duh. Of course he’s telling the truth. He’s Dan and he’s the best of everyone Kyle knows). Kyle beamed, “Well then, we’re just getting going, aren’t we?”

Dan shook his head. “The only place you’re going is to sleep. You are so high right now.” He stopped as they reached their room. Dan shifted so Kyle was leaning against the wall which freed him to search for the room key. Kyle started lightly kicking his foot against Dan’s as he waited. 

“Not high,” Kyle insisted. 

Dan opened the door, one hand holding it and the other reaching around to help guide Kyle into the room. Kyle came more willingly than Dan had anticipated and they stumbled ungracefully across the threshold of the door. And though he isn’t quite sure how they managed it, Dan finds himself with his back to a wall and Kyle leaning the bulk of his weight against him. The door closed behind them with a thud. Dan froze when he felt Kyle’s mouth press against his collarbone. 

Dan struggled to keep his voice even, “you are so very very high.”

Kyle doesn’t want to argue with Dan. It’s Dan. He loves Dan. Kyle moved his lips up along the side of Dan’s neck. Has Dan’s neck always been this warm? Kyle wonders why he’s never kissed Dan’s neck before now. “Hey, Dan?” he asked and Dan made a low sound that Kyle interprets as sign to continue. “Is this how your neck always is? It’s really nice.”

Dan clears his throat in attempt to regain some of his composure and answer while Kyle is alternating between kissing his neck and lightly rubbing his nose against him. “Well. Um. Yes. This is how it is. Just normally… well. Normally your mouth isn’t attached to it.”

“Sorry,” Kyle murmured. “Wrong of me to ignore your neck.” Kyle pulled back and looked at Dan. Dan parted his lips as if to speak. Kyle hated to interrupt Dan especially when Dan has been such a fucking hero looking out for him tonight, but it really can’t be helped. The only way Kyle can kiss Dan right now is to interrupt him. “Hey, Dan, ok if I kiss you?”

Dan blinks, “You… you don’t know what you’re saying. It’s the pain medication. It has your mind someplace else.”

“What?” The corners of Kyle’s mouth twitch up into a smile. “My mind’s always with you.”

Dan’s sight is shifting between Kyle’s lips and his eyes, unable to look away from either, unable to stop either from moving all over him, if it’s what Kyle chooses to do. “It can’t be a coincidence that all of sudden your lips are… “ Dan trails off.

Kyle tilts his head. “My lips are what?”

“They’re getting looser and all these, these secrets are flowing after you’ve had an injection of what, whatever it was, they gave you…” Dan’s argument feels weak and flimsy even to him. 

Kyle’s grin widens. Dan is still looking out for him. He’s so fucking proper. He’s such a fucking gentleman. It makes Kyle want to do all sorts of things to him. 

Dan swears that Kyle’s eyes have turned black — black with blown pupils from the medication and black with something else Dan won’t name, not when Kyle isn’t one hundred percent present with him.

“You can’t keep looking at me like that. Like you’re some sort of wolf and I’m fucking little red riding hood.” Dan paused and waited for Kyle’s response. Kyle was silent for the first time all evening, but no less dangerous for it. Dan knows it’s a murky area but figures one kiss won’t destroy everything… it hadn’t before and Jesus, how can he be expected to walk away from this… he isn’t a fucking saint. 

Dan inches a bit closer to Kyle and Kyle closes the distance. Their lips meet and Dan’s hands are acting of their own accord, one moving around the back of Kyle’s head into his hair, the other grabbing Kyle’s t-shirt pulling him closer. Dan knows it’s a bit wrong, but fuck if it doesn’t feel like the most right thing he’s done in ages. 

It’s only when Dan realizes that the kiss is getting away from him, fanning a fire all of its own that he knows he has to stop, to dowse it. He knows he won’t be able to live with himself if he wakes up tomorrow and Kyle has regrets or if he has no recollection of it all. Dan pulls back, relaxes his fistful of Kyle’s shirt, untangles his fingers from Kyle’s hair. 

Kyle moves to rest his forehead on Dan’s shoulder. They’re both quiet for a moment, both silently working through their thoughts, both arriving at different conclusions. “Stay. Stay with me,” Kyle mumbles.

“Of course. We’re hotel roommates,” Dan replies even though he suspects it isn’t the answer to the question Kyle is asking. His theory is confirmed when he feels Kyle move against his neck again.

“Just sleep, promise,” Kyle insisted.

Dan laughed lightly, but not unkindly. “Just sleep? Kyle. You currently have my earlobe inside of your mouth. Which… makes me feel a lot of things, but not sleepy. You know why we can’t.” Kyle sighed and released Dan’s ear. “I’ll be right here if you need me, but I’ll be in my bed.” 

Kyle slowly backed away from Dan and sat heavily on the nearest bed. “That’s less fun.”

Thinking of all the events from the day that had led them to this moment, Dan answered, “You’ve had more than enough fun for one day.” Dan instantly regretted his choice of words when he glanced at Kyle and saw him with a wolf-like grin back on his face. “There you go again. Stop. I’m not the red riding hood of this story.”

Dan meets Kyle’s gaze just as Kyle wonders “Are you sure about that?”

Dan finds that he isn’t sure about anything anymore.

—

The lights are off, Dan and Kyle each with a bed to himself and Kyle hasn’t spoken for a while. Dan assumes that Kyle has fallen asleep, finally put this insane day to rest. Dan is on his back, staring up at the ceiling and smiling into the darkness like some sort of lunatic. He isn’t sure what to make of anything, but he can’t deny how fucking good he feels, thinking of all of it. There must be some truth in it. Yes, Kyle was high, but it wasn’t as if all of it had come out of nowhere. Dan takes a deep breath, closes his eyes and tries to shut his brain off. He doesn’t have to figure everything out tonight, he can take some time to sort it out, to replay what happened.

And God knows he was going to revisit this night. 

Dan knew that he needed to at least make the attempt to sleep. He had a full day ahead of him. He settled in and tried to think of nothing at all. He was almost there, he could practically feel sleep wrapping around him.

“Hey, Dan?” Kyle’s voice broke the silence.

Dan turned to lay on his side, facing Kyle, even though he couldn’t see him in the darkness. Before Dan can answer, Kyle spoke again. ”You’re the best. Of everyone I know.” Kyle paused and exhaled. “Could be why I can’t make it work with anyone else.”

Kyle’s tone was easy, it was as if what he was saying was simply a matter of fact. Kyle seemed completely unaware of the wreckage his words were laying in their wake. Dan is grateful that the room is pitch black, that it’s completely cloaking his reaction. Dan struggled to hold on, to find a thread to cling to, something to help him think his way through the jumbled mess that was his head, something to convince him to remain in his bed. 

Before Dan can even begin to form a sentence, he hears Kyle. “Hey, Dan… are you awake?”

And because Dan has never laid claim to being particularly articulate or particularly brave, he remains silent.

It isn’t long before Dan hears Kyle taking slow, even breaths and he knows that Kyle has fallen asleep. 

—

Dan’s awake long before Kyle, on his laptop and he almost can’t type quickly enough to get his thoughts down. The words began pouring out of his head the moment he opened his eyes. He writes quickly, ignoring structure, grammar, spelling — desperate to get it down before it evaporates. Dan has lost track of time and isn’t sure how long he’s been working when he looks at Kyle’s bed and sees Kyle start to shift from side to side.

Kyle struggles to sit up. He doesn’t seem sure of how to balance his weight without using his injured arm. Dan swings his legs out and is sitting on the edge of his bed, ready to help when Kyle shakes his head. “I think I just need a minute,” Kyle winces. “The medicine has officially disappeared. Christ, it’s really something.”

Dan nodded sympathetically. “The nurse said it would be difficult today, remember? That the day after would be the worst.”

Kyle wrinkled his forehead as he thought. “Did she? I can’t remember much of anything after she gave me the injection.”

Dan tried to keep his expression neutral, tried to swallow around the lump that had somehow formed in his throat at Kyle’s words. “Do you remember anything after we left the hospital?”

“I felt like I was flying, I was so high. And…” Kyle paused as he tried to recall the night. “And I was happy.” He looked at Dan for confirmation. “I was deliriously happy, I think. Like, died and gone to heaven happy.” 

Kyle moved gingerly, attempting to get out of the bed without hurting anything. Dan watched him, waiting to see if Kyle needed him. Kyle placed a hand on Dan’s shoulder and lightly squeezed him as he slowly walked past him on the way to the shower. He looked back at Dan, “Did the nurse say anything about what happens after the meds wore off? Because right now it feels like falling from heaven straight through bloody hell. Know what I mean?” He shut the door behind him.

Dan reached around and closed his laptop without looking at the screen. He knows that there’s no chance he’ll be able to finish what he had been feverishly working on, just minutes earlier.

Dan believed that Kyle truly had no memory of the night before, that he wasn’t pretending. It wasn’t a rejection, it wasn’t an acceptance, it wasn’t anything at all — it was exactly the same as before. Last night as Kyle slept, Dan had let himself consider things. He had allowed himself to hope. He had felt like he was so close, so fucking close to having something he had wanted for years, only to have everything suddenly restored to a default setting. 

What was it Kyle had just said? He had fallen from heaven straight through hell? 

Yes. Dan knew exactly how that felt.

**Author's Note:**

> -thanks to Juli who received many gifs and thoughts about fairy tales this week.
> 
> -thanks to [ groundopenwide](https://archiveofourown.org/users/groundopenwide/pseuds/groundopenwide) & [ willIever](https://archiveofourown.org/users/willIever) for their story [we've been meteoric even before this.](https://archiveofourown.org/works/24684910/chapters/59654269) Apparently I just couldn't get lifts out of my brain after reading it. :)


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